Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Adobe Study Reveals Growing Importance of Creative Skills in College Admissions

23/09/2020

Adobe Teams Up With Inspirational Influencers To Help High School Seniors Showcase Creativity In College Applications

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Sept. 23, 2020 - Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced findings from its latest study-The Deciding Factor: The Case for a More Holistic Measure of Student Success-revealing that students and college admissions professionals overwhelmingly agree that creative skills are a key factor in admissions, yet there is no easy, meaningful way for students to showcase them in the current application process.

Building on Adobe's 2019 Get Hired study-which highlighted how important creative skills like communication, collaboration and creativity had become in the rapidly changing job market-Adobe's new study, The Deciding Factor, surveyed 1,000 high school students, 250 college admissions decision makers and 250 high school college placement counselors in the U.S. to provide synthesized insights on the evolution of college admissions processes and to understand how they have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Key findings include:

Creative skills rank among the top three deciding factors to college admissions decision makers, yet only 20% of those decision makers report that students demonstrate their creativity very well on applications.

Everyone agrees on the importance of demonstrating creative skills in college applications: admissions decision makers (95%), college placement counselors (97%) and high school students (88%).

Yet far fewer students plan to showcase them on applications this year, because they don't know how.

69% of students don't know where to showcase creative skills on their applications

84% of students wish they knew how to show these skills in their applications, and 85% wish they had more ways to show who they are as a person

93% of college placement counselors wish they could give students more guidance on how to show their creative skills in college applications

90% of admissions decision makers believe colleges need a standardized way to evaluate candidates' creative skills

This study illuminates the stark disconnect between the way we prepare students in K-12 and the demands of today's college admissions process, said Mala Sharma, vice president and general manager of Adobe Creative Cloud product marketing and digital media education. I see this as our responsibility to better guide high school students through a crucial moment in their personal and academic development; while also working with the education community and parents to ensure students are equipped with the critical creative skills needed to succeed throughout higher education and in their future workplaces.

Compounding these challenges is the severely limited amount of time college admissions officers have to review each student's application:

Students in the US spend an average of 26,000 hours in their K-12 education, including homework and extracurriculars, and an additional average of 29 hours preparing their college applications and essays. The average time spent reviewing each application by a college admissions professional? 11 minutes.

As uncertainty looms this year, students will need to find creative ways to stand out in those 11 minutes more than ever before. Adobe has partnered with some of today's most creative artists, makers and educators to show students how to showcase their creative skills in their college applications and share who they are in visual, unique ways - where the age-old college essay falls short.

Students can check out tutorials on how to use different creative mediums to tell their story and package it up as supplementary content for their college applications-learning from artist and photographer Matt Crump, comedic chart/graph artist Matt Shirley and high school teachers whose rap videos have gone viral, Audri Williams and Callie Evans. Additional tutorials from designer Steffi Lynn Tsai, #HipHopEd founder and professor Chris Emdin and more will be available in a few weeks.

Creative tutorials for students and educators as well as additional insights from the study can be found here.

About Adobe

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

2020 Adobe. All rights reserved. Adobe and the Adobe logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Public Relations Contact

Anais Gragueb

Adobe

[email protected]
LINK: https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2020/Adobe-Study-Reveals-Grow...
See more stories from adobe

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/07/2026

Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camerabag collection for modern hybrid creators

Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camera bag collection for modern h...

01/07/2026

Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition

Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition Brie Clayton July 1, 2026 0 Comments Volunteers use ATEM Mini Pro, Blackmagic Desig...

01/07/2026

Riedel, SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration WithSimplyLive Integration

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

PlayBox Technology Publishes State of Broadcast Infrastru...

PlayBox Technology has published State of Broadcast Infrastructure 2026, an in-depth industry research report examining the technologies, operational challenges...

01/07/2026

Jigsaw24 Appoints Alan Henry as Head of Sales for Media a...

LONDON, UK, 1 JULY Jigsaw24 has appointed Alan Henry as Head of Sales for Media and Entertainment, reinforcing its continued investment in helping broadcaster...

01/07/2026

Content Vault Partner with XMA to Distribute Universal Fi...

Content Vault, the patent-pending secure content distribution platform protecting high-value media from disclosures, theft and unauthorised access, today announ...

01/07/2026

Bitcentral Announces Strategic Evolution to Create Two F...

Bitcentral, Inc. a leading provider of enterprise software and digital media solutions for news, sports and entertainment broadcasters, as well as streaming pla...

01/07/2026

Adder Technology Names Neil Hillier as CEO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

IBCAP Opens New Anti-Piracy Lab in Denver

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

FCC Plans to Auction 160 MHZ of Mid-Band Spectrum

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

CBS Miami Launches 'Hope 4 Venezuela' Relief Effort

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Groundbreaking First Nations Screen Business Accelerator launched through national partnership

Groundbreaking First Nations Screen Business Accelerator launched through nation...

01/07/2026

Chyron Launches the All-New Chyron Academy: A Reimagined, Hands-On Learning Experience for Live Broadcast Production

Chyron Launches the All-New Chyron Academy: A Reimagined, Hands-On Learning Expe...

01/07/2026

Amplium Captures Kawasaki Brave Thunders Game with Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive

Amplium Captures Kawasaki Brave Thunders Game with Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersiv...

01/07/2026

Boris FX Optics Expands Plugin Support to Apple Photos, Capture One, and Affinity Photo

Boris FX Optics Expands Plugin Support to Apple Photos, Capture One, and Affinit...

01/07/2026

FIFA World Cup delivers strong audiences across all RT platforms

9.2 million streams on RT Player between 11 and 28 June Reach of 2.9 million viewers during Group stages of FIFA World Cup on RT 2 23 million video views acr...

30/06/2026

Entries open for Thomson's Young Journalist Award 2026

Could your journalism reach an international stage? Entries are now open for the Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2026, one of the most prestigi...

30/06/2026

CazTVs 12 ENG Teams Across North America Keep Brazilian Fans on Top of World Cup

As Brazil's only way for fans to see all 104 matches, YouTube channel proves the power of digital...

30/06/2026

UJAM release Retrocraft multi-effects

Brings together saturation & lo-fi effects Following on from the release of their Voxcraft vocal-processing plug-in, UJAM have announced the launch of Retro...

30/06/2026

Zensphere v2 from Rapid Flow

New IR reverb engine, Juno-inspired chorus & more The latest version of Rapid Flow's hardware-emulation synth plug-in expands on its predecessor with a ...

30/06/2026

Shy Audio release Shy 90s Smack

Excels at heavy-handed VCA compression For their latest release, Shy Audio have recreated the crunchy' sound of a rackmount compressor that found its w...

30/06/2026

Apple raise Mac & iPad prices

Component scarcity drives cost increases Shortly after Apple's CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that cost increases would soon be inevitable , the company hav...

30/06/2026

Statement regarding GetUp Save Our SBS' campaign

Statement regarding GetUp Save Our SBS' campaign 30 June, 2026 Media releases The GetUp Save Our SBS' campaign is an independent initiative. SBS ...

30/06/2026

The First Hitachi Cash Recycling Devices in the EU Were Deployed at Bank Pekao S.A.

Hitachi and Bank Pekao S.A. have completed the installation of the first Hitachi...

30/06/2026

Clear-Com Upgrades Communication Systems for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune

eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......

30/06/2026

Telemundo, Peacock See More Record Setting World Cup Audiences

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

FOR-A America Adds Two Execs to U.S. Sales Team

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

A3SA Disputes Weigel Assertions that NextGen TV Threatens EAS

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

MainStreaming Selected by ITV to Support Delivery of ITVX...

MainStreaming, the award-winning and innovative Edge Video Delivery Network, today announced that it has been selected by ITV to support the delivery of ITVX, I...

30/06/2026

Chyron Launches New Chyron Academy

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

Clear-Com Upgrades Communication Systems for Jeopardy and...

When Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! needed to upgrade their wireless communications system, they turned to Clear-Com FreeSpeak wireless for their iconic televi...

30/06/2026

Supreme Court Gives Trump Tight Control over Independent Regulators

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

Rocket Lab to Acquire Iridium in $8 Billion Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

Kyocera AVX Releases New Web-Based Antenna Integration Tool

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

YouTube Shorts Get a Makeover

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

Rise Announces 2026 Worldwide Mentoring Cohorts

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

Other World Computing Launches New Atlas Core Line with 256GB CFExpress 4.0 Type B Memory Card

Other World Computing Launches New Atlas Core Line with 256GB CFExpress 4.0 Type...

30/06/2026

DaVinci Resolve Studio Used for Taketoshi Sado's Perfume Cold Sleep -25 years Document-

DaVinci Resolve Studio Used for Taketoshi Sado's Perfume Cold Sleep -25 year...

30/06/2026

NVIDIA BioNeMo Agent Toolkit Brings Accelerated AI to Life Sciences Researchers in Claude Science

Life sciences has entered an era of computational scale, and for more than a dec...

30/06/2026

FOR-A America Expands U.S. Sales Team to Accelerate Growth of Software-Defined Solutions

Fernando Cruz and Jaz Wray Join as Regional Sales Managers; Bringing Extensive S...

30/06/2026

How NVIDIA's Inference Software Stack Powers the Lowest Token Cost

As organizations move from AI pilots to production AI factories, infrastructure decisions have shifted from peak chip specifications to cost per token: how many...

30/06/2026

Into the Omniverse: Three Workflows for Improving Vision AI Agent Accuracy With Synthetic Data and Fine-Tuning

Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...

30/06/2026

June 29, 2026

Scripps Research scientists demonstrate a faster, cheaper route to making critical drugs using common table sugar New method illustrates how to build a tough ch...

29/06/2026

Op-Ed: Why the 2026 World Cup Is Redefining the Economics of Live Sports Production

By Andy Rayner, CTO, Appear The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the largest football tou...

29/06/2026

Study: Esports Plays Major Role in Gen Z Media Habits, Purchasing Behavior

A new multi-country study from ESL FACEIT Group, Hero Esports, and Niko Partners estimates that 400 million Gen Z consumers regularly engage with esports, under...

29/06/2026

ESPN Sets Multiplatform Plans for America 250 Celebration

ESPN will mark America's 250th anniversary with a series of content initiatives across its linear, digital, and streaming platforms, including a special edi...